Brake Dilemma

I’m not from Sydney so had to google foveaux-doesn’t actually look that steep, is it the one in Surry Hills?

nice bike, don’t wreck it becasue you don’t know how to ride, front brake FTW.

even if you can stop on a dime without a brake, in emergencies it’s always nice. plus you can go faster with confidence

^^+1 Foveaux is hard enought to walk up. Sometimes i have to turn around and walk up backwards. :smiley:

You never stop on a dime without brakes. Rear skids are shit unless you’ve got one of those stupid chopper things with a low centre of mass and stupid long heavily raked (real rake, not bicycle terminology rake) forks.

I saw a video on youtube with some courier showing how safe his fully sik emergency stops are, they were shit slow compared to using the front brake.

Conventional bicycles have terrible geometry and weight distribution for braking with the rear. Short wheelbase and high centre of mass (flyweight bike with human perched up high. Even on motorbikes where the CoM is lower, if you wanna stop fast in a straight line you use the front.

just drill it. the fork isn’t particularly awesome and you just get another one from hillbrick if you want an undrilled one.

you don’t have access to any more of those ofmega cranks do you? very nice!
nice bike all over actually, and a front brake won’t change that

I have those Ofmega cranks too. They’re the “Mistral” model.

It’ll look awesome once the seats not slammed to the TT and there’s clips n’ straps on it…

fuck it was on youtube? must be true.

yeh we all know this shit.

and foveaux is a steep fucken hill.

Point(s) duly noted. Should have ordered it yesterday just missed out on free shipping on Velogear!

How crazy are wednesday night rides? Am I gonna get left behind cuz im too green?

Hate to brake* it to you kids but a front AND rear brake together work even better. :roll:

Better still if you learn how to use them together properly

*I know

Also just a quick question.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38859193@N07/4121169776/

Here is a top view of my pedals and wheels. If i put clips on, is it gonna hit the wheels every other time i turn?!?

not ‘every time you turn’ but yes, looks like there will be a tiny amount of overlap. you wouldn’t turn your wheel that far unless moving slowly, so it’s only ever an issue at low speeds (stopping/starting), or when trackstanding. even then, with a modicum of balance, you can push through the rotation till your pedal stroke clears the wheel, and then continue the turn.

It doesn’t look like toe overlap will be too bad. But it might hit. You’ll only hit when you turn sharply going slow – general riding and you don’t hit. But watch out when trackstanding – not too hard to hit and fall over in the middle of an intersection.

Welcome to the world of track bikes – it’s not all about the lifestyle and the beautiful girls dropping at your nice wheels – you have to take the good with the bad.

EDIT ^ oh hi LAM

I’ve found that under maximum braking the rear contributes only when you stick yourself right behind and under the seat. Only then have I exceeded the grip of the front before fully unweighting the rear, although in slippery conditions and when braking through a corner or on a cambered surface it’s another story. I especially hate locking the front up on motorbikes, it gets exciting pronto. Add a bit of lean and it’s often unrecoverable, but I haven’t had the displeasure of experiencing this on a bicycle.

then you ain’t doin it right

A conveyance without brakes of some sort is pure genius, everyone notices the skinny jeans and oversized sunglasses more than the brakes (or lack of) anyways.

uncool? sure, but dont they teach folks to ride bikes (the ones with combustion between the thighs) to rely on back brake and only feather the front?

Well that would explain the motorcyclist road toll…

You are completely wrong there my friend. On motorcycles I’d say it would be ~65:35 front to back overall usage. The front brake is the most effective, giving between 60 & 80% of the bike’s stopping power in hard stops. (also depending upon surface conditions)

because most of the weight of the bike and rider transfers forward onto the front wheel when the brakes are applied, the weight transfer pushes the front wheel into the ground which helps grip.

uncool? sure, but dont they teach folks to ride bikes (the ones with combustion between the thighs) to rely on back brake and only feather the front?

Absolutely not. Brake evenly with both but more bias to the front when braking hard.

Well that would explain the motorcyclist road toll…

No cars the are the reason the motorcycle road toll is so high!

Just like cyclists hate cars motorcyclists hate them more.

happy to be wrong but what about in wet road conditions? and braking mid corner??